Do you want to know about the Gay Witch Sex Cult? Estate agent Kaelan – comedian Andrew Doherty – is at the gender reveal party for his first child with his partner Jeremy, who is still en route. He really shouldn’t tell us about the Gay Witch Sex Cult but he can’t help himself.
The folk horror comedy, where a potential antichrist looms, is stocked full of Doherty’s hilarious anti-comedy as Kaelan continually fails to see the obvious, including the danger, in front of him.
As we wait for Jeremy’s arrival, Kaelan tells us everything about the mysterious cult based on an island off the east coast of England. He recounts his journey by boat, manned by a stereotypically ‘local’ ferryman, to assess the island for a private buyer who is considering a purchase.
And the ferryman is not the only folk horror stock character on the supposedly deserted island, though I’ll avoid spoilers – think The Wickerman or An American Werewolf in London. Doherty’s trick is to subvert the character types through Kaelan’s obliviousness, heightening the comedy, and the horror when it comes. He also convinces us to feel for this self-centred father-to-be, despite his considerable flaws and his unconscious subscription to various ‘-isms’.
Part of that is Doherty’s charm that offsets Kaelan’s more peculiar personality traits, but he still makes the most of his high camp, continually mining for greater laughs as he ramps up the absurdity and sends us hurtling through plot twists towards the show’s conclusion.
You have to admire the show’s programming – with its late night 11 pm start in the Pleasance Courtyard’s appropriately spooky Attic space meaning the hour-long show draws to a close as the witching hour begins. How perfectly suited for a show as wonderfully absurd as this.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (Very good)
Andrew Doherty: Gay Witch Sex Cult is at the Pleasance Courtyard until 25 August 2024
